different between barnacle vs clam

English

Etymology

From Middle English barnakille, from earlier bernake, bernekke, from Old Northern French bernaque (“barnacle”) (compare French barnache), from Medieval Latin barneca (“limpet”), from Gaulish (compare Welsh brennig, Irish báirneac), from Proto-Celtic *barin?kos, from *barin? (“rock, rocky ground”) (compare Old Irish barenn (“boulder”)), from Proto-Indo-European *g?r?H- (“hill, mountain”) + Proto-Celtic *-?kos, from Proto-Indo-European *-kos, *-?os; for sense development, compare Ancient Greek ????? (lépas, “rock”) which gave ????? (lepás, “limpet”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b??n?kl?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?b??n?kl?/
• Hyphenation: bar?na?cle

Noun

barnacle (plural barnacles)

1. A marine crustacean of the subclass Cirripedia that attaches itself to submerged surfaces such as tidal rocks or the bottoms of ships.

   Hypernyms: arthropod, crustacean

2. The barnacle goose.
3. (engineering, slang) In electrical engineering, a change made to a product on the manufacturing floor that was not part of the original product design.
4. (computing, slang) On printed circuit boards, a change such as soldering a wire in order to connect two points, or addition such as an added resistor or capacitor, subassembly or daughterboard.
5. (software engineering, slang) A deprecated or obsolete file, image or other artifact that remains with a project even though it is no longer needed.

   (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

6. (obsolete, in the plural) An instrument like a pair of pincers, to fix on the nose of a vicious horse while shoeing so as to make it more tractable.

   Synonym: twitch

7. (archaic, Britain, slang, in the plural) A pair of spectacles.
8. (slang, obsolete) A good job, or snack easily obtained.
9. (slang) A worldly sailor.

   Synonym: shellback

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

barnacle (third-person singular simple present barnacles, present participle barnacling, simple past and past participle barnacled)

1. To connect with or attach.
   • 2009, Liza Dalby, Hidden Buddhas: A Novel of Karma and Chaos, Stone Bridge Press (2009), ?ISBN, page 178:

     Tokuda went over everything his grandfather had taught him, including the commentary that had barnacled on to the core knowledge.

2. To press close against something.
   • 2002, Douglas Coupland, All Families Are Psychotic, Vintage Canada (2002), ?ISBN, page 16:

     He turned a corner to where he supposed the cupboard might be, to find Howie and Alanna barnacled together in an embrace.

See also

• limpet

Further reading

• barnacle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• [Francis] Grose [et al.] (1811) , “Barnacle”, in Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. […], London: Printed for C. Chappell, […], OCLC 23927885.
• barnacle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• barnacle (slang) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• balancer

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /klæm/
• (æ-tensing) IPA^(key): [kle?m]
• Rhymes: -æm

Etymology 1

From Middle English clam (“pincers, vice, clamp”), from Old English clamm (“bond, fetter, grip, grasp”), from Proto-Germanic *klamjan? (“press, squeeze together”). The sense “dollar” may allude to wampum.

Noun

clam (plural clams)

1. A bivalve mollusk of many kinds, especially those that are edible; for example the soft-shell clam (Mya arenaria), the hard clam (Mercenaria mercenaria), the sea clam or hen clam (Spisula solidissima), and other species. The name is said to have been given originally to the Tridacna gigas, a huge East Indian bivalve.
2. Strong pincers or forceps.
3. A kind of vise, usually of wood.
4. (US, slang, chiefly in the plural) A dollar.

5. (slang, derogatory) A Scientologist.
6. (slang, vulgar) A vagina.
7. (informal) One who clams up; a taciturn person, one who refuses to speak.
9. (dated, US, slang) mouth (Now found mostly in the expression shut one's clam)

Derived terms

• bearded clam
• clambake
• clamshell
• clam chowder
• clam shack
• clam up
• happy as a clam

Translations

Verb

clam (third-person singular simple present clams, present participle clamming, simple past and past participle clammed)

1. To dig for clams.

Translations

See also

• clammy

Etymology 2

Noun

clam (plural clams)

1. A crash or clangor made by ringing all the bells of a chime at once.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)

Verb

clam (third-person singular simple present clams, present participle clamming, simple past and past participle clammed)

1. To produce, in bellringing, a clam or clangor; to cause to clang.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)

Etymology 3

From Middle English clammen (“to smear, bedaub”), from Old English cl?man (“to smear, bedaub”). Cognate with German klamm (“clammy”). See also clammy (“damp, cold and sticky”) and clem (“to adhere, stick, plug (a hole)”).

Adjective

clam (comparative clammer, superlative clammest)

1. (obsolete) clammy.
   • 1808, John Jamieson, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language:

     Ice is said to be clam, when beginning to melt with the sun or otherwise, and not easy to be slid upon.

Noun

clam

1. clamminess; moisture
   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History

     The clam of death.

Verb

clam (third-person singular simple present clams, present participle clamming, simple past and past participle clammed)

1. To be moist or glutinous; to stick; to adhere.

   • A chilling sweat , a damp of jealousy,
     Hangs on my brows, and clams upon my limbs

2. To clog, as with glutinous or viscous matter.

Etymology 4

Noun

clam (plural clams)

1. (rowing) Alternative form of CLAM

Anagrams

• ALCM, CAML, Caml, Malc, calm

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?klam/
• Rhymes: -am

Noun

clam m (plural clams)

1. clamor

Synonyms

• clamor

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *?l-, zero-grade form of *?el- (“to hide, conceal”). Cognate to Latin c?l?.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /klam/, [k??ä??]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /klam/, [kl?m]

Adverb

clam (not comparable)

1. clandestinely, secretly, privately
2. stealthily

Derived terms

• clancul?
• clanculum

Related terms

• clancul?rius
• clandest?n?
• clandest?nus

Preposition

clam (+ accusative, ablative)

1. (with accusative or, rarely, ablative) without the knowledge of, unknown to
   • 163 B.C.E. Terence, Heauton Timorumenos, Act II, Scene II:

     Neque ade? clam m? est.

     Nor indeed is it unknown to me.

References

• clam in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• clam in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• clam in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• clam in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Old English

Alternative forms

• (NE dialects) cloam

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kl??m/

Noun

cl?m m

1. mud

Declension

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *klamos (“sick, leprous”). Cognate with Welsh claf (“sick, ill”).

Noun

clam m or f

1. leper

Usage notes

The noun's gender depends on the leper's gender. If the leper is male, it is masculine. If the leper is female, it is feminine.

Inflection

Descendants

• Middle Irish: clam

Mutation

References

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019) , “clam”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language